PC RAMS Computer Club

Demonstration of handy free utilities byJohn Samuels, “Dr. PC”

February, 2010

All of the following utilities are Free-Ware. They are ones I frequently use to keep PCs safe from harmful code, remove harmful code when needed, and keep PCs running efficiently. There are many more available, some of which I have not heard of or tried, but these I trust and have used them for years. I invite you to come up with your own list and present them to the club.

These utilities should be installed, kept updated and run regularly:

Avira AntiVir Personal - FREE Antivirus is a reliable free antivirus solution, that constantly and rapidly scans your computer for malicious programs such as viruses, Trojans, backdoor programs, hoaxes, worms, dialers etc. Monitors every action executed by the user or the operating system and reacts promptly when a malicious program is detected.

Avira AntiVir Personal is a comprehensive, easy to use antivirus program, designed to offer reliable free of charge virus protection to home-users, for personal use only, and is not for business or commercial use. Available for Windows or UNIX.

Basic protectionProtects your computer against dangerous viruses, worms, Trojans and costly dialers. New: Basic Anti-Spyware.

Avira AntiVir Personal

I’ve tried Norton, McAfee, Panda, Avast, and Avira.

Avira seems to be the best compromise of speed,

accuracy, ease of use and ability to remove malware.

The #1 free firewall monitors inbound/outbound traffic and makes you invisible to hackers.

An effective and easy-to-use firewall program, ZoneAlarm does a great job of keeping your PC safe from a variety of threats. ZoneAlarm uses a simple wizard to make configuring a firewall, which seems like a daunting task to many computer users, incredibly easy.ZoneAlarm is designed to protect your DSL- or cable-connected PC from hackers. This program includes four interlocking security services: a firewall, an application control, an Internet lock, and Zones. The firewall controls the door to your computer and allows only traffic you understand and initiate. The Internet lock blocks Internet traffic while your computer is unattended or while you're not using the Internet, and it can be activated automatically with your computer's screensaver or after a set period of inactivity.

ZoneAlarm

The Windows Vista firewall is OK, but the one in XP only does half the job. If you don’t use a router and

run XP, use this one.

File DefragmentationUse Defraggler to defrag your entire hard drive, or individual files - unique in the industry. This compact and portable Windows application supports NTFS and FAT32 file systems. Now compiled to run in 64 bit mode, even faster.

Defraggler

This one seems faster than the one in XP and you can select and defrag a file if you want. Vista runs Microsoft’s defrag

automatically.

Removes Spyware Spybot - Search & Destroy detects and removes spyware, a relatively

new kind of threat not yet covered by common anti-virus applications. Spyware silently tracks your surfing behavior to create a marketing profile for you that is transmitted without your knowledge to the compilers and sold to advertising companies. If you see new toolbars in your Internet Explorer that you haven't intentionally installed, if your browser crashes inexplicably, or if your home page has been "hijacked" (or changed without your knowledge), your computer is most probably infected with spyware. Even if you don't see the symptoms, your computer may be infected, because more and more spyware is emerging. SpyBot-S&D is free, so there's no harm giving it a try to see if something has invaded your computer.

Spybot - Search & Destroy

Virus scanners don’t focus on spy-ware, so rarely find it. Run the SpyBot update first, then scan your system monthly.

Real-time protection against spyware, trojans,rootkits, hijackers, keyloggers, and more!

We have taken the security product millions of people know and trust one step further to give all users the power to protect themselves. By combining Lavasoft's pioneer anti-spyware technology with advanced Genotype detection, Ad-Aware Free is your proactive malware removal tool, allowing you to combat today's toughest cyber threats.

Ad-Aware Free Anti-Malware features real-time protection, a rootkit removal system, automatic updates, and much more — to ensure that you have the power to protect yourself online.

Ad-Aware Free

Although there is some overlap with Avira and SpyBot, Ad-Aware finds

other threats, and gets rid of pop-up ads too.

Use the following tools only when needed:

(formerly CrapCleaner!)

WindowsRecycle Bin, Recent Documents, Temporary files and Log files.

Internet ExplorerTemporary files, history, cookies, Autocomplete form history, index.dat.

FirefoxTemporary files, history, cookies, download history, form history.

Google ChromeTemporary files, history, cookies, download history, form history.

OperaTemporary files, history, cookies.

SafariTemporary files, history, cookies, form history.

CCleaner

 Registry cleanerAdvanced features to remove unused and old entries, including File Extensions, ActiveX Controls, ClassIDs, ProgIDs, Uninstallers, Shared DLLs, Fonts, Help Files, Application Paths, Icons, Invalid Shortcuts and more... also comes with a comprehensive backup feature.

Third-party applicationsRemoves temp files and recent file lists (MRUs) from many apps including Media Player, eMule, Kazaa, Google Toolbar, Netscape, Microsoft Office, Nero, Adobe Acrobat, WinRAR, WinAce, WinZip and many more...  100% Spyware FREEThis software does NOT contain any Spyware, Adware or Viruses.

When your computer slows to a

crawl and does strange things, run this to clean things

up.

Windows Defender detects and removes spywareWindows Defender is software that helps protect your computer against pop-ups, slow performance, and security threats caused by spyware and other unwanted software by detecting and removing known spyware from your computer. Windows Defender features Real-Time Protection, a monitoring system that recommends actions against spyware when it's detected, minimizes interruptions, and helps you stay productive.

Windows Defender (for XP)

Vista installs and runs this one automatically. For XP download and install it. But, it may slow down an older

PC.

You try to uninstall or update an application on one of the PCs in your environment, but your command doesn't execute. Instead, an error pops up telling you that the application cannot be uninstalled or updated, or a newer version is already installed, etc. Sound familiar? If so, you've undoubtedly wondered what causes this glitch.

You would resort to this utility if you can't uninstall or update an application through Add/Remove Programs or other methods. By deleting the Windows Installer information, you should be able to reinstall the application. You can then leave the program installed as is, update it, or even remove it. It is not recommended that you use this tool for Office 2007; see Microsoft support.

Windows Installer CleanUp Utility

Occasionally you’ll need this

one!

Malwarebytes is a site dedicated to fighting malware.

Malwarebytes has developed a variety of tools that can identify and remove malicious software from your computer. When your computer becomes infected, Malwarebytes can provide the needed assistance to remove the infection and restore the machine back to optimum performance.

Malwarebytes

If your computer gets infected, and you’ve tried all the utilities

above, install and run this one. It has cleaned

up PCs with multiple infections!

The following are just useful utilities:

Too many '>'-quoted emails stopping the message from getting to you?How often have you needed to extract text from your emails, only to find the simple, menial task to take more time than it should. You'll have many '>' characters appearing at the beginning of lines because your email has been replied to, back and forth, countless number of times. Often, you'll also need to painstakingly reformat the text to make it appear readable.Now with Clippy, you'll be able to remove '>' characters and reformat your text with a single click of a button.But why stop there? You can re-align the '>' characters that have been concatenated into a single line; Strip HTML tags; Convert the case of letters; Remove line breaks; Count the number of lines and words; Search and replace text; And more.Clippy works by taking the text that you have copied to the clipboard, sending the text through it's conversion engine and pushing the reformatted text to the clipboard.

Clippy

I refuse to pass on an Email full of the

evidence of it being Emailed before, again and again. Clean it up

with Clippy!

The Belarc Advisor builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware, missing Microsoft hotfixes, anti-virus status, CIS (Center for Internet Security) benchmarks, and displays the results in your Web browser. All of your PC profile information is kept private on your PC and is not sent to any web server.

Belarc Advisor

Install this and the updates, and run it

from time-to-time to produce a record of

everything installed on your PC.

The above utilities are provided without any guarantee as to their effectiveness for your situation. You should read all the system requirements and installation details before using them. I believe that the links provided are safe and that the downloads do not contain any harmful code.